UZVA

Very pleasant and melodic instrumental jazz music from Finland.They have divided this recording into three sections with 2 to 3 songs in each. "Soft Machine" is the first section.Part 1 opens with the birds chirping while vibes,drums then bass comes in.Violin before 2 minutes as it stays pastoral.Flute a minute later. Part 2 has a fuller sound with heavy drums and lots of violin.The flute becomes prominant as well.Guitar after 6 minutes as bass throbs.It settles with violin 7 1/2 minutes in. Part 3 is violin led with a fuller sound a minute in.Some nice bass as well.Aggressive guitar 2 1/2 minutes in.It ends with the birds singing. "Afrodite" Part 1 continues with those birds hamming it up.This is very pastoral with piano and flute.The violin does become prominant. Part 2 features some great drumming as guitar,then violin come to the fore.I like the guitar after 6 minutes.The birds are back! Did they ever leave? "Drontti" Part 1 opens with surprise! Birds. It's mellow and violin led. Part 2 continues with the singing birds as vibes come in.Flute before 2 minutes.The tempo picks up as violin and guitar arrive.It settles somewhat again.An aggressive passage before 4 minutes.I like the darker section before 5 minutes with violin.A big finish follows.Nice. The overall mood is fairly light,too light for my tastes.Having said that,there are some really good passages here that i enjoy a lot.

UZVA hail from Finland and ''Tammikuinen Tamella'' is their debut album...It is a completely instrumental work and comes as a combination of progressive rock,ethnic orientations,chamber music and jazz improvisations...Weird,ha?And that's the way it is...This band has an obsure unique sound which I consider as a plus...Most part of the album is dominated by the bass lines,acoustic guitar work and an intense change of use of instruments like violin,cello,trombone,harmonica and the french horn.This is when AFTER CRYING or even ANGELO BRANDUARDI's early solo works come to mind...But also part of it contains complex progressive/jazz rock reminiscent of GENTLE GIANT or MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA,especially in the closing track ''Part V''...Important notification : This isn't an easy album to listen to! It takes several listenings to appreciate it and it's not an album for every time of the day, a specific relaxing mood is recommended before listenin to it...Anyone who wants to try something really new in the progressive rock field should check UZVA's works out...For me this is a 3.5 star effort, ranging from 2.5 stars to 4.5 dependin on the mood!...

I got this Uzva's last recording Uoma some days ago and fortunately I like this one almost as much as their previous one. The music has gone a bit more electric, maybe in two compositions there are too straight suggestions to chinese and arabic music (instead of more allegory)... But all in all these Chinese Daqydream and Arabian Ran-Ta are very fine compositions. My real faves are anyway majestic Kuoriutuminen, dynamic Vesikko and pastoral Lullaby (only for three acoustic instruments - great final of this item)! On Dec 9. last year I had the greatest pleasure to visit the capital of my neighbour- country - Helsinki - to visit one concert of Uzva where they performed three longish compositions of this Uoma-recording: the results were very intense and a bit more electric than before... Uzva had (and have) some new members and on this Uoma-record also some quest musicians on different acoustic instruments (for example harp and bassoon). This record is very-worth-to-listen Finnish instrumental nature-friendly fusion with some electroacoustic (and acoustic) highlights!

Third album from this hard-to-classify combo. As opposed to their previous album, they are much more electric and the jazz influences are rather more present also. Graced with a naïve but superb interchangeable artwork, this very long instrumental album is definitely in the jazz-rock domain and the again link different pieces (a bit arbitrarily if you ask me) together, so you will find 11 tracks divided into six "song titles" wghich are all penned by guitarist Heikki Puska , although Vibraphone man Olli Kari helps out on two of the longer tracks.

Opening on the superb 13-min+ Kuoriutuminen, this album warns right away that it will be more electric than the previous album, while the second a slower (and even more electric) burner called Different Realities. With a rather different two-part Chinese Daydream (a little cheesy, IMHO) able to provide a welcome break between more involved numbers. The following Arabian Ran-Ta is one of the highlights of the album with an excellent exchange between the violin and the flute. Of course you are all waiting to find out about that 23- min+ Vesikko tracks (three of them actually), and let's face it, this is the cornerstone on which the album is built. The unavoidable medley of jazz-rock, classical music (they remind me of early Maneige) again turning to far-eastern influences, before shifting to a sort of Mahavishnu fusion (BOF-era) etc. The last track is a quiet harp outro.

With this third album, Uzva is really entering the court of the great fusion bands and most likely will stay around for a while, for they have everything and every ingredient to succeed. Hard to say whether this album is better than the previous Nittoaika (which a was also a small chef d'oeuvre), but it is at least as excellent as it.

As a fan of prog folk I find it hard to place Uzva into that category. I don't mean that I would not like this album, I do. But it is to me more folk jazz and also classical elements are visible. The most enjoyable thing in this record is the recording itself. You don't need to wait for live acts if you have good equipment at home, Uzva will be there also! It's not wonder as the music is recorded by Måns Groundstroem, a member of the great prog bands Tasavallan Presidentti and Wigwam (which might also explain the 70's influence in this music) and mastered by Otto Donner, a highly talented musician and co-founder of the finnish record company Love Records. Only weak moment on this album is in the beginning the sound of the violin. It seems that Lari is a bit tense but as the music gets going the playing is just fine.

Uzva is nature-like-sounding instrumental symphonic fusion combo from Finland. In addition to guitars, bass and drums we can listen such kind of instruments like vibraphone, marimba, piano, cello, flute, violin, accordion and clarinet. And so we can be in quite acoustic but sometimes very expressive soundspectrum. There are three longish multi-part- compositions: Soft Machine, Afrodite and Drontti. Sometimes we can hear little relationships with best-days-Mike Oldfield, Pierre Moerlen's Gong, Maneige, Pekka Pohjola, even instrumental Frank Zappa or Steve Reich. This record gets step-by-step more and more delightful. In my oppinion Afrodite and specially Drontti are real masterpieces - gentle, full of dignity and quite original (4,5 stars really)!

Uzva's Niittoaika is a fantastic album. This band plays only instrumental music. The band plays some sort of a combination of jazz, folk, chamber music and even RIO (in my opinion), and this combination is well combined! The members of this band play well, and the songs have been composed sophistactedly. I had had to listen to it few times before I was capable of enjoying this music, however, after listening to it enough I discovered a fantastic band which is actually original. In short, Uzva offers an instrumental album that begins smoothly and ends up with a lovely dissonance played mostly by accoustic instruments. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This is a very happy and playful summer record, which creates a small theme of seasons, as the band's previous album was a peaceful winter album "Tammela at January". Some listening of 1972-1974 era KING CRIMSON was probably done during the time between these albums, as there are great freeform improvisations between the composed themes and more structured jams. The band also performed "Red" as an encore in their concert, where they also played material from this CD. The first two suites are pastorals, "Afrodite" being specially mellow, and "Drontti" has a more aggressive beat in vein of early 70's FRANK ZAPPA.

When I first listened to this record, it didn't quite catch my complete interest, and I first graded "Niittoaika" as a three star album. Luckily the problem was not in the album but in my own state, as I was both stressed and sick; Now carefully listened again, I got the good kicks which it can offer. Recommended sincerely!

One can find very pleasant jazz-fusion pastorals from this disc by the Finnish misty musicians. The whole album works as one instrumental suite, and the tracks dividing different themes have only numbers as their names. The overall sound of this album is acoustic and chamber orchestra like, and there are influences of both classical and pleasant jazz music to be heard here. I would recommend this CD to those who liked early 70's TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTTI and PEKKA POHJOLA, and the jazz stuff of FRANK ZAPPA. The band is a very good live act, so any possible concerts near you are also recommended!

Very organic and orginal music from Finland. Haven't heard anything like this for a long time. Resembles Mahavishnu Orchestra and early Jukka Tolonen. Very peaceful album that at the end grows stronger. Recomended for all mankind.